1. Field of the Invention
The present general inventive concept relates to an image forming apparatus. More particularly, the present general inventive concept relates to an image forming apparatus including an image forming unit in which a developing member and an image carrier are selectively in contact with or spaced apart from each other and a maintenance method of the image forming apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
Generally, a photographing unit including an image carrier and a developing unit including a developing member that are used in an electro-photographic image forming apparatus are components having a certain lifetime so that they may need to be replaced with new units after a certain number of print media are printed.
For this, the photographing unit and the developing unit are detachably disposed in a main body frame of the image forming apparatus, and the photographing unit and the developing unit are hinge-connected to be rotated by a predetermined angle with respect to each other so that the image carrier of the photographing unit and the developing member of the developing unit may be selectively in contact with or spaced apart from each other. To rotate the developing unit a predetermined angle with respect to the photographing unit is performed by a contact-separating unit which is separately disposed. A lever member is disposed at one end of the contact-separating unit, and, if the user rotates the lever member, the developing unit is rotated by a predetermined angle with respect to the photographing unit so that the developing member is in contact with or spaced apart from the image carrier.
In a case of assembly of a conventional image forming apparatus, after a photographing unit 201 and a developing unit 203 are mounted, as illustrated in FIG. 1, if a lever member 210 is rotated upward (in a direction of an arrow AA illustrated in FIG. 1), a developing member 204 is brought into contact with an image carrier 202 (i.e. the developing member 204 is moved in a direction of an arrow BB in FIG. 1). Accordingly, the image forming apparatus is normally operated to perform printing.
However, since the conventional image forming apparatus is not configured to automatically confirm whether the developing member 204 is in contact with or spaced apart from the image carrier 202, the user needs to visually check whether the developing member 204 is in contact with the image carrier 202 or not. If the user operates the image forming apparatus in a state in which the lever member 210 is not rotated, that is, in a state in which the developing member 204 is not contact with the image carrier 202, then because the developing member 204 is not contact with the image carrier 202, an image is not formed.
Also, in a case in which the photographing unit 201 or the developing unit 203 needs to be replaced for maintenance of the image forming apparatus, the lever member 210 of FIG. 1 should be rotated downward. Then, the developing member 204 is spaced apart from the image carrier 202 so that the developing unit 203 and the photographing unit 201 may be separated. If the user separates the photographing unit 201 and developing unit 203 in a state in which the lever member 210 is not rotated downward (in a direction opposite arrow AA in FIG. 1), because the image carrier 202 and the developing member 204 are in contact with each other, the photographing unit 201 and the developing unit 203 may be damaged. For example, if the photographing unit 201 is forcibly removed in a state in which the developing member 204 is in contact with the image carrier 202, contact regions of the developing member 204 and the image carrier 202 are severely rubbed against each other so that the surface of the image carrier 202 may be damaged.
However, since the conventional image forming apparatus is configured so that the user manually rotates the lever member 210 to allow the image carrier 202 to be in contact with or to be separated from the developing member 204, the user may forget to rotate the lever 210 member. If the photographing unit 201 or the developing unit 203 is separated in a state in which the lever member 210 is not rotated, the image carrier 202 is rubbed against the developing member 204 and may be damaged. Further, after the photographing unit 201 and the developing unit 203 are mounted, if the image forming apparatus is operated in a state in which the lever member 210 is not rotated, the developing member 204 is not in contact with the image carrier 202 so that normal printing may not be performed.
Accordingly, it is necessary to provide an image forming apparatus that can prevent problems caused by a user forgetting to rotate the lever member 210.